50 Golf Inc. July/August 2015
for both resorts, along with thousands of
hotel rooms and other accommodations
and the usual tourist attractions. Haiti
desperately needs such transformative
resorts to spark its tourism industry, for
last year it attracted just 456,000 vacationers, a number that pales in comparison to those recorded by the Dominican
Republic ( 5.1 million), which it shares an
island with.

Some people believe that the nation, like
Cuba, has vast potential for golf development, but it’s effectively starting from zero.

Haiti’s only golf course — the nine-holetrack at Pétionville Golf & Tennis Club —closed in 2010, when it became a tent cityfor 60,000 people whose homes had beendestroyed by the earthquake that leveledPort-au-Prince.

ANTIGUARating: D

Baha Mar may be just the beginning of a
new wave of mega-resort development in
the Caribbean. Earlier this year, Chinese
investors operating as Yida International
Investment Antigua Ltd. broke ground
on Singulari, which is expected to occupy
property on the northeastern coast of
Antigua and on nearby Guiana and other
islands. If it’s built as planned, Singulari
will be the second-biggest resort in the

VARADERO, CUBA

Golf course at Mansion
Xanadu in Varadero,
Cuba. The estate
belonged to one of the
Du Pont brothers before
the Cuban communist
revolution.

TH
E
V
IS
UA
L
EX
PL
ORE
R
/
SHU
T
TE
RS
T
OCK
.
CO
M

USA Canada Europe
9,000,000

8,000,000

7,000,000

6,000,000

5,000,000

4,000,000

3,000,000

2,000,000

1,000,000

0

GOLF DEMAND

n Total Arrivalsn Potential arrival of golfersregion (after Baha Mar) and chockfullof vacation-happy attractions includinga casino, five hotels (including one cre-ated by Hard Rock Cafe International), amarina, and a 27-hole golf complex. Thecash-strapped government of Antiguaand Barbuda, which is contending withwhat Forbes calls “crippling nationaldebt and unemployment,” has rolled outthe red carpet for Zhang Yida and hispartners, in the hope of attracting otherinvestments from the People’s Republic.Now Yida International needs to recipro-cate by delivering on its promises.

PUERTO RICORating: B

If you’re looking to play the venue that
the Golf Channel regards as “very likely
the top course in the Caribbean and possibly the most interesting golf course in
the world,” book a flight to Puerto Rico.
That’s where you’ll find Golf Links of
Royal Isabela, the centerpiece of a private,
426-acre resort community that’s taking shape outside Isabela, on the island’s
northwestern coast. The 18-hole, David
Pfaff-designed track is long and challenging, but since its official opening in
2012, it’s received the sort of praise most
golf properties only dream of. Forbes says
it’s “impossible not to be moved” by the
course, which “offers one jaw-dropping
vista after another.” Royal Isabela is being
developed by Charlie Pasarell, the former
tennis star, and his brother, Stanley, on
what’s been called “one of the most striking locations on the planet.” The Pasarells